Sales tax holiday next weekendLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas will conduct its annual sales tax holiday on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 2-3. The legislature created the sales tax holiday by approving Act 757 of 2011. The intent of the act is to help families with children in school, and is commonly known as the “Back to School” sales tax holiday. However, everyone benefits from the holiday, whether or not they have children of school age. Clothing and footwear that cost less than $100...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Issues with Issue No. 3There is one issue on the November ballot that could impact term limits, pay for legislators, and gifts from lobbyists. Issue No. 3 is an ethics reform measure put forth by the 89th General Assembly. This amendment was drafted as a response to the growing popularity of Regnant Populus. As you may remember, the Regnant Populus group failed to get enough signatures before the last election to get a proposed amendment on the ballot. Their amendme...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Don’t reinvent the wheelYou no doubt have heard the saying, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” This is really a cliché that simply means to not waste your time doing something or working on something that has already been perfected, more or less. The key thought here is “don’t waste your time.” While this sounds logical and even practical, I am here to tell you that if you take that saying at face value and do not move beyond it, you are going to miss some tremendous blessi...

Rick Perry's bold border moveGov. Rick Perry of Texas plans to order 1,000 National Guard troops to his state’s border with Mexico in an effort to stem the tide of immigrants illegally entering from Central America, dispersing around the country once they’ve made it into Texas. Critics will call it a stunt and accuse Perry of showboating, but at least he is taking action, while President Obama, who took an oath to defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic, ...

They're off!In the Georgia Republican runoff this week, David Perdue won the right to represent Republicans in the general election this fall. His win has placed the final piece of the puzzle for the political landscape this season in Georgia. With less than four months until the fall election, not a minute can be wasted by either side. The Senate race has become an oddity, with two CEOs (one business, one non-profit and both with politically recognizable...

An inside view at the Russellville Animal ShelterThere has been a lot of talk about how bad the animal shelter employees are, as in how they don't care about the animals and just want to kill them. It has been said they don't try to adopt, foster or advertise to find them homes. I've heard that the shelter smells. For the last 30 years, through my personal interactions with the staff from the shelter on C Street to its current location on South Mobile, I have watched the shelter progress wit...

No more aid to Palestinian AuthorityThe anti-Semitic “tradition” of blaming Jews for the world’s problems mostly took a temporary back seat in light of the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. Major newspaper editorials condemned Hamas, but their condemnation was hedged by calls for “restraint” on “both sides” and “proportionality” in Israel’s response to the attacks. There is little or no mention of Hamas’ directive to ignore Israel’s warning to...

What the third party candidates saidIt’s still a tossup as to who will be the next governor, but we know who it won’t be: neither Frank Gilbert nor Josh Drake, the Libertarian and Green Party nominees. Gilbert, the Libertarian, and Drake also know neither of them will be the next governor — not in a system dominated by Republicans and Democrats. Nevertheless, they’ve put their names on the ballot. Here’s the shorthand for what their parties stand for. Greens are pro-environment ...

Immigration crisis: bordering on madnessIn a recent confrontation between protesters against the illegal flood of unaccompanied children into the United States and counter-protests by some Hispanic group, one man from the latter group said angrily, “We are as good as you are!” One of the things that make the history of clashes over race or ethnicity such a history of tragedies around the world is that — regardless of whatever particular issue sets off these clashes — many people see...

Prisons reform moving to top of ’15 agendaLITTLE ROCK — With prison officials seeking up to $100 million for a new facility and both gubernatorial candidates offering competing public safety plans, prison reform is moving to the top of the agenda for lawmakers when they return to the state Capitol next year. State corrections officials’ announcement last week that they’ll ask for between $75 million and $100 million to build a 1,000-inmate prison and the growing calls to revise a thre...

Police: Arrested man ordered 5 pizzas to stationPolice in southern Kentucky said they got a surprise delivery after charging a man with shoplifting — five pizzas showed up at the station. Officers said Michael Harp, 29, asked to make a call on his cellphone Tuesday afternoon while being booked in Corbin. A short time later, police said, a pizza delivery driver showed up to deliver to “Officer Wilson,” the name of the officer who arrested Harp. Police said they linked the call to Harp by tra...

Back to the rootsLet’s get back to our roots, shall we? When I began this column, my goal was to share somewhat interesting trivia about various topics I’ve read about on the Internet and in books. • All copies of the film “Nosferatu” were ordered to be burned due to a lawsuit from the heirs of Bram Stoker. “Nosferatu” was an unlawful adaption of “Dracula,” after all. Their tactic, since they were unable to get permission from the Bram Stoker estate, was to ma...

Summertime in ArkansasWith Gov. Beebe leading an economic development mission in Europe, this week’s column is presented by Richard Davies, Director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. LITTLE ROCK — We’ll entertain about 24 million travelers in Arkansas this year, the vast majority of whom will come from beyond our borders. A great many will visit The Natural State during the next few months, making the most of our wonderful summertime opportunities. M...

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Richard Davies / Arkansas Dept. of Parks and TourismThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Up to you to decide how we move forwardLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas is one of 24 states where if one gathers enough signatures, their issue can appear on the November ballot. A citizen-led initiative can either be in the form of an initiated act or a constitutional amendment. This November, you may see a few citizen-led initiatives on the ballot, and you will also find a proposed constitutional amendment that could impact the process for future initiatives. Issue number 2 was one of the ...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Change coming to immunization requirementsLITTLE ROCK — Under new immunization requirements being considered by the state Board of Health, children who will be 11 or older on Sept. 1 must have a Tdap shot in order to attend a public or a private school. The Tdap shot protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Parents will be in compliance with Board of Health requirements if they have been taking their children to their family physician to receive their shots, as recommended ...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Are black voters turning against Obama?It may be too soon to label it a trend and there is insufficient data to confirm it, but President Obama and his party may be losing their iron grip on their most loyal and enthusiastic voting bloc: African-Americans. Last Friday in Chicago, a group of black residents of the city’s South Side, staged a protest against the violent shootings that are becoming as commonplace as White Sox games at Cellular Field. It wasn’t just the protest that sh...

The best of both worldsIf you have read my column for very long, you know that my passion is literacy. Several years ago I came to the stark realization that without good literacy skills, a person in our modern society does not have a prayer with regards to achieving success. Being able to read and write and communicate effectively is the basis for all education. and I don’t have to tell you our nation has lost ground over the past several decades with regards to ha...

Lawsuits and impeachmentWhenever Democrats are in real trouble politically, the Republicans seem to come up with something new that distracts the public’s attention from the Democrats’ problems. Who says Republicans are not compassionate? With public opinion polls showing President Obama’s sinking approval rate, in the wake of his administration’s multiple fiascoes and scandals — the disgraceful treatment of veterans who need medical care, the Internal Revenue Servic...

Virtues require underlying frameworkThis summer has served as a reminder to me about the virtue of virtues, specifically hard work and perseverance. Last winter, our 12-year-old son, Robert, was accepted into an honors performance group as a string bass player, based on his teacher’s recommendation and an MP3 submission of his playing. In May, he was sent four pieces of music to master by late June, when he was to perform them in New York. It was not easy. The music arrived late...

Which approaches would stabilize the debt?Is it possible to bring the government’s debt under control by focusing only on one area — raising taxes, for example, or cutting defense spending? Let’s return to the Debt Stabilizer to find out. I wrote last week about the Debt Stabilizer, an online tool created by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (crfb.org) that lets average citizens make tax and spending choices — hopefully better ones than Congress has made — in order to red...